


Yet my heart is with him altogether

by Cerberusia



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: M/M, Predicament Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 10:42:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21298127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerberusia/pseuds/Cerberusia
Summary: Thomas was halfway to sat up and wide awake when a hand was slapped over his mouth and he was pressed back down to the mattress. He was making a fist to drive into the intruder's sternum when he realised who was now straddling him.Jimmy?he mouthed against his palm."If you say one word," said Jimmy, very quietly and very seriously, "I'll get up and leave."
Relationships: Thomas Barrow/Jimmy Kent
Comments: 13
Kudos: 204





	Yet my heart is with him altogether

Thomas awoke at the sound of his door opening. The room was still dark. In the few night-time emergencies he had lived through at Downton, standard procedure had been to pound on the door like the Second Coming until the person inside got up, not to let yourself in. This was either something they didn't want the whole men's quarters knowing about, or he wasn't supposed to have woken up. He closed his eyes again and feigned sleep.

Footsteps crept across the floor towards the bed, not the dresser; so it was him they wanted, not anything he might keep in his room, which in any case they could search during the day when he wasn't in it. Bare feet, by the sound of it - they couldn't have come far, then. One of the other men on the corridor, it had to be.

The feet stopped by his bed. Thomas kept his breathing even and considered who it could be. The steps were too light for Carson and too even for Bates, who in any case no longer lived on the corridor; it had to be one of the footmen. And it wasn't likely, he conceded with a touch of bitterness, to be Jimmy. But why the hell would Alfred be sneaking into his room in the middle of the night? Had O'Brien put him up to it, all the way from India?

A heavy weight landed on top of him. Thomas was halfway to sat up and wide awake when a hand was slapped over his mouth and he was pressed back down to the mattress. He was making a fist to drive into the intruder's sternum when he realised who was now straddling him.

_Jimmy?_ he mouthed against his palm.

"If you say one word," said Jimmy, very quietly and very seriously, "I'll get up and leave." He was in his pyjamas and his hair fell fetchingly loose over his forehead. He looked like everything Thomas had ever wanted to wake up to.

"Don't move," said Jimmy in a harsh whisper, and took away his hand. Thomas instinctively licked his lips, but made no other movement and said nothing, just watched Jimmy's face as he placed his hand gently on Thomas' chest, his palm warm through the pyjamas. Thomas was aware of the way his chest rose and fell steadily under Jimmy's hand, even as the touch sparked anticipatory tingling. He knew quite well that Jimmy was not about to ravish him, but the position Jimmy had put them in was very suggestive to Thomas' libido. He could not, however, gather the faintest idea of what Jimmy _did_ intend to do to him.

Thomas fancied there was a slight tremor in Jimmy's hands as he unbuttoned Thomas' shirt and slipped his hand inside to touch his bare chest. First the right side, then the left, where he cautiously splayed his fingers over Thomas' heart. Thomas felt his pulse speed up under Jimmy's hand, and felt a little embarrassed. Their friendship was predicated on absolutely no mention of Thomas' inclinations being made, and if Jimmy continued to straddle him in a bed and grope him, that was soon going to be impossible.

Then Jimmy dragged his hand down to press on Thomas' clothed abdomen, and Thomas felt all the muscles in his thighs clench. Jimmy, straddling them, must have felt it; but he took no notice, looking at his own hand on Thomas' stomach, rising and falling with too-quick breaths.

This couldn't possibly be going the way it seemed to be: Jimmy had made his feelings on that quite plain. But a curiously detached part of Thomas knew for a certainty that this was _exactly_ what it looked like. Men did not undress other men and touch - _fondle_ \- them like this unless they wanted to do quite a bit more than just a grope.

Thomas still didn't say anything. He just watched Jimmy's face, with its queerly intent expression, as he explored Thomas' body through his pyjamas. He felt every fiber of the cotton against his skin as Jimmy's fingertips smoothed over his chest and down his belly. He was aware of his own body as an object.

When Jimmy's fingers started to creep up his pyjama shirt, he had a hard time keeping still. But Jimmy had told him not to move, and if Jimmy got up and left now Thomas thought he might just die from longing, so he clenched the bedsheets in his fists and took measured breaths through his nose.

It was as if he could feel every whorl of Jimmy's fingertips and palms on his skin. Jimmy ran his fingers through the hair on his belly and chest with a curious expression, and Thomas chewed his lip in desire to take one of Jimmy's hands and put it where he most wanted it. He could feel his own chest rising and falling - surely so could Jimmy. He must know what he was doing to Thomas. He must surely be able to feel Thomas' erection against his backside, which was sitting directly on it.

When Jimmy started to unbutton the rest of Thomas' pyjama shirt, it was a relief: Thomas knew this bit, at least. Though he was usually wrestling with his partner's buttons at the same time. Instead he lay there, arms by his side, and let Jimmy expose his bare skin to the thin moonlight that crept through the curtains of his attic room. Surely this would lead to a kiss, at least...

But Jimmy only continued to explore the planes of Thomas' body, an older body. He was more solid than Jimmy, and hairier too, and Jimmy took it all in with a look like an artist with a nude model. It unnerved Thomas even as it aroused him: normally, he took the lead with men, and his enforced passivity put him off-balance. He wanted to roll them over and show Jimmy how men made love, the same way he'd been shown in his turn.

Jimmy's tongue flicked out to lick his full lips a moment before he wriggled backwards, to sit on Thomas' thighs just above the knee. He could now see Thomas' erection through his pyjama bottoms. Jimmy stared at the tent in the fabric with such concentration that Thomas would have been self-conscious, if he hadn't been too excited for that. Jimmy's fingers returned to his belly, tracing the thicker line of hair down, down...Thomas had to fight not to shudder. He was strung so tight he was trembling a little. Something was going to explode, and he wasn't sure whether it was his cock or his head.

Jimmy didn't want to go straight for it though, or maybe he wasn't brave enough. Hesitantly, he touched Thomas' cock though his pyjama bottoms. When Thomas didn't move - though his knuckles were bone-white as he clutched the sheets - he seemed to grow bolder, and actually took hold of it through the cotton. Thomas felt it pulse in Jimmy's grasp, and the blood rushed in his ears. What did it feel like to Jimmy, to hold another man's cock for the first time? He wanted to beg, but that would only make Jimmy leave.

Jimmy kept stroking his erection lightly. His eyes were fixed on what his hand was doing, which left Thomas free to look at his face. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes half-lidded, and his unfocussed sexual air made him look like a fantasy of the ideal boy. Thomas wished desperately for him to take off his clothes, or at least unbutton his pyjama shirt to give Thomas a glimpse of his smooth chest. His throat looked like a marble column in the moonlight, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed.

Finally - finally! - Jimmy caught the top button of his pyjama bottoms and, with a quick movement, undid them all in succession. Thomas' cock sprang free, and when he looked down he could see the wet shine on the head. Jimmy was looking at it, just looking at it, and Thomas wanted to say something like _For God's sake, Jimmy, you've got one of your own._ But if he did then Jimmy might not even speak to him again, so he swallowed hard and waited. He still didn't know truly what Jimmy wanted. For all he knew, this was a game, an attempt to humiliate him. He hated to think badly of Jimmy; but it was what he would have done, in Jimmy's place.

After a prolonged, agonising moment, Jimmy reached out and touched the head of Thomas' cock with his fingertip. Thomas drew in a shaky breath and licked his lips nervously. He looked at Jimmy's dark dark eyes, then at his hand, then back again.

Jimmy stroked that fingertip over the tip of Thomas' cock, over and over, and Thomas took harsh breaths through his nose and tried not to wriggle. He had to bite his lip so he wouldn't say something like _Please_. If Jimmy had told him to beg, Thomas would have pleaded and grovelled without hesitation. He wanted Jimmy more than he'd wanted anyone or anything.

But Jimmy tested him. His fingers rubbed around the head of Thomas' cock, then trailed down the shaft, then came back up again to play with it lightly - never more than a glancing touch. Thomas was stretched to the limits of his self-control. Was this Jimmy's game, to push him until he broke the rules? He had to close his eyes for a moment.

When he opened them, Jimmy was watching his face. Thomas tensed and automatically looked away; but Jimmy kept looking at him, kept watching. His grip on Thomas' cock got firmer, more like what he must do to his own - and that was a good image, Jimmy tugging on his own cock in the darkness of the footmen's bedroom, quick and quiet but beautiful, the muscle in his belly heaving with his quick breaths when he came. Thomas wanted to see that.

He swallowed and took a deep breath, which he expelled shakily. He didn't move. If this was a test, he'd pass. Jimmy's hand was moving confidently on his cock now, and it was hard to keep still. He wanted to kiss Jimmy's open mouth very badly. Jimmy had very kissable lips.

Jimmy was still looking at his face, but sometimes he glanced down to watch his own hand on Thomas' cock. His eyes were huge, dark and liquid in the dim moonlight which turned everything else in the room grey. Thomas licked his dry lips, and he watched Jimmy watch his tongue. He could do so many things, so many wonderful things to Jimmy, if only he were allowed.

He'd always assumed that it would have to go like that, if Jimmy ever did respond to his advances - him taking charge of Jimmy. Despite his easy charm with girls, Jimmy had seemed a touch skittish in a way that Thomas associated with city lads who were worried about what their mates might think, or what Thomas might think. Thomas had had a couple of those, in his time; and in his eagerness, he'd misread Jimmy's revulsion for hesitance.

But he didn't seem at all revolted by Thomas' body now, merely curious. In fact, Thomas would even guess that he was sexually interested: you didn't take it this far just because you were _curious_. Could that be it? Could it have been that Jimmy was only frightened of being the chased rather than the chaser? Thomas tried to look even more passive than he already was. He was never passive in bed, even if he was playing bitch, and found men who preferred to put on a shy girlish attitude slightly baffling. It was one thing for one man to be the seducer and the other maiden loth; it was another to lie there like a dead fish making helpless cow-eyes at the seducer. Thomas preferred fucking men who weren't shy about what they wanted.

Sparks of pleasure ran through his body as Jimmy stroked his cock so carefully, which made it harder to stay still. He could feel himself get even harder in Jimmy's hand. He looked down his body to watch Jimmy doing it, to watch his gaze so intent on Thomas' body. When the tip of Jimmy's tongue flicked out to wet his lips absently, a dribble of precome leaked from Thomas' cock and ran down Jimmy's fingers. Jimmy looked down in surprise, and touched it, spreading the sticky liquid over the head. Thomas fought the urge to thrash under that light touch. If Jimmy kept on like this, Thomas was going to come, and there was no way he could keep silent and still for _that_.

He wished desperately that Jimmy would take off his clothes too, but it was plain that Jimmy had no intention of doing so. Thomas just wanted so badly to look at him. Jimmy was wonderfully smooth on his chest and had fine thick blond hair on his legs, and the moonlight filtering through the dingy curtains would make him glow like a Greek statue. Thomas wanted to touch every part of him, every inch of smooth skin and every secret cranny where the flesh was soft and virgin. He had a vivid fantasy of how Jimmy's skin would taste salty-sweet on his tongue. God, the things he'd thought of doing to Jimmy...

But if Jimmy had considered even a kiss too disgusting to keep up a friendship, there was little point in strategizing how the rest might come to pass - so Thomas had told himself in the aftermath of his disastrous loss of self-control. But here Jimmy was, in Thomas' bed, touching him up. Thomas bit the inside of his cheek and watched Jimmy watch him. He could see his own chest rising and falling as his breath came quicker and he tried to make neither sound nor movement.

Jimmy kept touching Thomas' cock with that same careful attention; but he placed his other hand back on Thomas' abdomen and began to stroke slow circles on it. Thomas tried desperately not to wriggle. Jimmy's light touch set off tingles in its wake. God, he was beautiful. Thomas remembered touching his shoulder, his neck, when he was showing Jimmy how to wind the clocks - it had seemed so sordid after Jimmy had made it plain his attentions were unwanted. Now he remembered how solid Jimmy's shoulders had been beneath his uniform, how he could feel the warmth of Jimmy's skin even through his clothes and Thomas' glove.

The glove - he wasn't wearing it, of course. But Jimmy showed no interest in Thomas' mangled hand. His attention was fixed on the rest of Thomas, bared to his inquisitive stare. Thomas swallowed and took deep, shuddering breaths through his nose as the tension in his belly wound tighter, tighter. How was he meant to control himself with Jimmy on top of him, doing this to him? He lacked any control over the situation, which frightened him as much as it excited him.

It had to happen eventually, of course, with how Jimmy was going about touching him, so slowly and maddeningly, almost teasingly - except it was as if it were more for Jimmy's benefit than Thomas'. As if Jimmy were exercising his power over Thomas and Thomas' body, while Thomas himself lay there powerless and passive. The knot of tension that had been building and tightening in his groin pulled and unravelled, all at once, and his whole body jerked and shuddered as he spurted come over Jimmy's hand with low, throttled moans.

Jimmy looked momentarily surprised, which made Thomas want to ask _What did you think was going to happen?_ But he just looked at Thomas' come now covering his hand (Thomas had a powerful vision of him licking it off, which was going to stay with him for _weeks_), then wiped it off on the bedsheets. No disgust, even though in Thomas' experience, most normal men had a pathological aversion to getting another man's semen on them.

Jimmy sat up, and Thomas was just able to discern the bulge of an erection in his pyjama bottoms. His whole body drew tight with desire. _Yes, I want that._ God, Jimmy could do anything to him if he'd just let Thomas touch his cock, worship it. Now he'd got Thomas off, perhaps he'd spread Thomas' legs and bugger him. Thomas definitely wouldn't be able to keep quiet for _that_.

He was most afraid that Jimmy might leave; but perhaps his compliance with the order to be still and silent had won Jimmy's trust, because Jimmy didn't move from his legs, but putting down his own pyjama bottoms so his cock sprang free. It was exactly as Thomas had imagined it - perfect. Thomas could feel its phantom under his fingertips. He could imagine vividly what it would feel like to stroke the velvety foreskin over the plush head. God, if Jimmy would just let him do that...

But Jimmy took hold of it himself, still sitting there on Thomas' thighs. Took hold of his hard-on and began to rub it quickly. The moonlight revealed that the head was leaking a little. Had touching Thomas done that to him? Thomas licked his bottom lip as he watched. He wouldn't just touch it with his hand, given the chance: he'd suck it. He'd suck it and it would be just as good as a woman's cunt, and Jimmy wouldn't have to go flirting with unsuitable girls: Thomas could provide exactly what he needed.

Jimmy looked incredible - literally, unbelievable. He was working his dick hard, and how many times had Thomas daydreamed about coming upon Jimmy doing this, thinking himself unobserved? How often had he idly fantasized about what Jimmy's cock might look like erect? Jimmy's body rocked back and forth with his quick strokes. His half-lidded eyes seemed to be staring at Thomas, up and down, from his no doubt red face to his still-heaving chest to his stomach on which some of his own come had landed, to his softeing cock. What was Jimmy seeing? What had changed in Jimmy's heart to make him desire Thomas?

Jimmy abruptly curled forward over Thomas, his body clenched, and Thomas was torn between watching his agonised face or his jerking, spurting cock as he came - on Thomas' belly, to mix with the semen that was already there.

He sat there for a while, still panting. Both of them were looking at Jimmy's come on Thomas' skin. Thomas licked his lips again, wondering if he should finally say something, never mind what Jimmy had told him - but Jimmy caught his eye and put his finger to his lips. Then he got off Thomas and stood on shaky legs, tucking his prick away. Thomas would have said he looked slightly embarrassed.

He did take one last, lingering look at Thomas, still mostly undressed; as if he was checking that Thomas really was doing as he was told. Then he crossed the floor on near-silent feet, and left. The door made barely a noise as it closed behind him. And Thomas was left there, in his bed, with his own come and Jimmy's drying on his belly, a lot of questions, and no answers.


End file.
